Summery Hariyali Chicken

Three hours at the hairdresser and I was ready for the big hen night. We picked wine, cocktails and a two-course meal served alongside Burlesque, vintage parlour humour and retro nudity.
Now provocative, champagne-soaked dancing I can handle. Husky rendition of Fever I can enjoy. But was it really necessary to expose dimply bottoms and orange peel thighs in the middle of my dinner?
I focused on the thigh on my plate.
Chicken has been having its own issues lately. Since the revered Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall started his campaign to raise the plight of the ill treated, factory-farmed birds, I have been spurred into action.
Gone are the days of BOGOF packs of chicken thighs and drumsticks. I now stick to the free-range variety at the very least and organic if I haven't blown my salary on alcohol and cabaret shows.
Thankfully, chicken thighs and drumsticks are cheaper than breast meat and infinitely more tasty in a curry. So give a chicken a chance with this herbed, light and fresh Hariyali Chicken recipe. I used Waitrose organic free range chicken and it rocked.
This is my entry to A Merrier World's fantastic effort to raise awareness of the chicken we eat.

Method:

Chop up the full length of the salad onions. Bring a large pot to heat over a high flame with the oil.

When it starts sizzling, throw in the salad onions and the ginger garlic. Stir it for about a minute until the ginger and garlic goes pale golden brown.

Now add in the chicken pieces and the coriander and cumin powders and brown for about five minutes, turning over from time to time.

In the meantime, wash and cook the spinach covered for about three minutes in a microwave. Take the mint of the hard stalks and cut the thick ends of the stalks off the coriander.

In a blender, puree the cooked spinach with the mint, coriander, lemon juice and green chilli. Pour this fresh green sauce onto the chicken, lower the flame to a medium and cook covered for half an hour until the chicken is cooked.

You may need to add half a cup of water to help the chicken cook. When the chicken separates from the bone and the curry is mist but not watery, serve with some steaming hot Basmati rice and a content smile.

I am looking for a yummy cabbage roll recipe (healthy). Let me know if you get to making such a thing…I have become used to tried and tested blog recipes, hate to try something random from the internet!! Many of them call for baking, and it makes no sense because everything seems well cooked already.

I only know 2 things with cabbage : cabbage with tofu and garlic and white bepper (saute these things, basically), and the south Indian style cabbage with the usual south indian tadka and coconut flakes. Boring.

Hi again. Another economy trick is to buy the whole organic bird, and then segment it yourself, maybe freezing some pieces. You can use the breast for one meal, the thighs for another, etc. And the carcass for chicken soup. Serving with a plate heaped with fresh veg and wholefood grains will make the chicken go further and maybe us too (‘cos it is so healthy).

I am cooking from this recipe right now (minus the mint) and it is delicious! I have tried many palak based Indian curry recipes from the blogosphere and this one is a keeper!! Also by far – the simplest.

Thank you for the recipe. I tried it today and it was delicious. I have many variations of palak chicken recipe in the past but was never completely satisfied with the end result. This is the best palak or hariyali chicken recipe ever! I didn’t have fresh mint though, so I just added some kasori methi while cooking the chicken.
Mausumi